An estimated 33% of children aged 5 to 17 in Sierra Leone’s Eastern Province have experienced child trafficking, and 36% have experienced child labor, according to new research from the African Programming & Research Initiative to End Slavery (APRIES) at the University of Georgia’s Center on Human Trafficking Research & Outreach (CenHTRO).
The research, based on the largest-scale household survey on the topic ever undertaken in Sierra Leone, offers insight into how and why child trafficking happens in the West African country. The report describes child trafficking and child labor in Sierra Leone’s Eastern Province, which comprises three rural districts near borders with Guinea and Liberia and is among the poorest areas in what is considered one of the world’s poorest countries.